While the Source engine may not be look it to some, it is still an advanced and graphically demanding engine. Besides that, the CS:S Stress Test is a worthwhile benchmark to run because, unlike 3DMark06, it IS an actual game and it offers all of the same graphical options that playing the game offers.

All tests were run at both 1024x768 and 1280x1024 with vertical sync always off, color correction always on and either all settings as low as possible or as high as possible (for high, 4xAA was used since there is no 6xAA on NVIDIA cards). The 6800GT SLI benchmarks from the Inno3D review have been thrown out due to some sort of bug causing the game to run substantially slower in SLI mode.

Each test was run twice at the given resolution and detail settings to provide a check. In no case were the scores ever off by more than 3 frames per second.

Counter-Strike Source: Stress Test

The game is very much CPU-bound, hence the mostly close results between each card at every resolution except 1024x768 high, where the 6800 really pulled ahead.

To test out some of the GeForce 7-series exclusive features, I turned on transparency antialiasing and turn on SLI AA to see how the game looked and ran with those settings.

Counter-Strike Source: Stress Test SLI AA

The Stress Test ran surprisingly well, even at 16xAA. Just barely over the 30, watching the test run, it was still quite smooth and looked absolutely STUNNING. For fun, I played Half-Life 2: Episode 1 for a short while with the SLI 8xAA and transparency AA on, thinking the game would lag horribly, especially with HDR enabled, but surprisingly I was coasting along a comfortable average of 38fps, according to FRAPS. Of course there were dips where the game got down to around 27 and up as high as 46, but more often than not, 38 was shining proudly from the upper left corner of my monitor at 1280x1024, all settings maxed.

The Source engine has always been a favorite of mine due to how realistic everything looks and with transparency AA and SLI AA, it looks even more fantastic.